Egypt: Senior military official shot dead in Cairo

General Adel Ragaei dies in hail of bullets in front of his home in Obour City suburb of the capital, relatives say.

23 Oct 2016 04:25 GMT

Attacks in Egypt have been frequent ever since General Sisi overthrew the country's president in 2013 [Reuters]

A senior Egyptian army officer has been shot dead outside his home in a Cairo suburb, security sources and relatives said.

Brigadier General Adel Ragaei, who commanded an armoured division deployed in the Sinai, died in a hail of bullets on Saturday, as he left his home in the Obour City suburb, according to his sister-in-law Huda Zein Elabedine and his wife Samia Zain Elabedine.

Fighters in Egypt have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula, but such attacks on senior officers are rare.

Ragaei's wife told the Reuters news agency how she witnessed his death.

"Minutes after he left the house I heard gunfire, I went out to find him covered in blood ... he received a lot of bullets .. He died instantly," she said, adding that neighbors told her the assailants had automatic weapons and fled in a car.

"At 6am (04:00 GMT) they killed him. I can't tell you if it was six or 12 bullets. It was before he could get into his car," the AFP news agency quoted Ragaei's sister-in-law as saying.

A military official told AFP that the officer had indeed been "martyred", but he did not provide further details.

According to media sources close to Al Jazeera, Ragaei oversaw the destruction and flooding of tunnels that ran into the Gaza Strip under the Rafah border, which provided a lifeline for residents of the besieged territory.

Armed groups in Egypt

An armed group called Liwa al-Thawra claimed the attack, in a message posted on Twitter, AFP reported, but the message has yet to be independently verified.